The present invention relates to the field of audio/video editing. Specifically, the present invention presents a method and apparatus for storing digitized audio/video tracks.
Currently, audio/video editing is most frequently performed according to the system illustrated in FIG. 1. An editing workstation today includes local disks on which audio/video is stored. Editing may be performed via a display screen, but is limited to the locally stored audio/video data. This type of a system provides insufficient functionality for editing a large amount of audio/video data stored on multiple workstations.
More specifically, this system is insufficient because current editing workstations do not perform editing across the boundaries of workstations, over networks. Audio/video data on each workstation must be edited separately, and the output of the editing may then be input into a mixing console to create a final audio/video output. If there are any problems with the final audio/video output, then the tedious process of editing the various audio/video data tracks residing on each separate workstation has to be repeated. This process continues until the final output is satisfactory.
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for storing digitized audio/video tracks. A plurality of lists are created wherein each of the plurality of lists defines a characteristic of the audio/visual data. The plurality of lists are linked according to a data structure such that performing an edit operation on a portion of the audio/visual data results in the edit operation being applied to the plurality of lists.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description.